Highly specialized surgical expertise tends
to collect in major medical centers and
metropolitan areas, which is a problem
if you’re one of the millions of people
not living in one. Industrial engineering
assistant professor Juan Wachs and
computer science associate professor Voicu
Popescu considered this challenge of rural
America as an opportunity. They proposed
a new telementoring system using robotics
and augmented reality to enable surgeons
in rural areas to receive expert training in
real-time without losing any benefits of an
in-person, trainer-trainee relationship. It’s
called STAR (System for Telementoring
with Augmented Reality).

Putting technology together

STAR combines Wachs’ gesture recognition
and robotics research, Popescu’s augmented
reality research, and trauma surgery
guidance from Dr. Gerry Gomez, chief
trauma surgeon at Eskinazi Health in
Indianapolis. “All of this technology either
exists or has been discussed in the industry,
but nobody has put it together to create the
experience,” Wachs says.

In current systems, both the surgeonmentor and mentee use headsets andlaptops to view and communicate. “Itworks, but it’s not the most natural wayfor surgeons to work,” says Wachs. STARwill use augmented reality to give thementor a projected patient on a table. Thementee will use a tablet over the patientas a window, with the mentor’s guidanceappearing onscreen so his eyes are alwayson the patient. STAR includes the TAURUSrobot, whose arms and hands will act asthe mentor’s hands in the operating room,assisting, pointing things out and handingtools, just as an in-person mentor would.

Far-reaching impact

Purchased from the Executive Vice
President for Research and Partnership
equipment grant and in collaboration
with professors Howard Zelaznik, Bradley
Duerstock, Eugenio Culurciello, Fabian
Winkler, C.S. George Lee, Cheryl Zhenyu
Qian and Heather Towle Millard, TAURUS’
impact won’t just be felt at home. It is also
poised to revolutionize battlefield surgery,
where time is of the essence and flying
a patient to the nearest expert may be
infeasible.

“This system means that surgeons can
perform more specialized operations in the
field because they can have access to real-time specialist guidance. TAURUS is also
much smaller than many surgical robots,
which makes it more practical for field
hospitals,” he says.

Wachs’ team recently received a grant from
the U.S. Armed Forces to make STAR a
reality. They expect to spend three years
developing the technology before beginning
tests. | A.Z.

REVOLUTIONIZING RURALSURGERIES WITH ROBOTS

… For now, it's daylight
and glare. And water run. To dip
a hand from the boat, a semisweet
stinging. The air's cut
through thousands of spruce
to get here and smell
like this …